Why is my LYNX Touch arming Stay when I arm it Away?

If you have ever armed your Honeywell LYNX Touch system to the away mode only to have it switch back to stay mode, you are experiencing the Auto Stay Arming feature. While it may be confusing or even annoying, the Auto Stay Arming feature is there by design.

In normal circumstances, when you arm the system to away mode, you exit the house by opening and closing one of your doors programmed as an entry/exit zone type. The system can tell you exited because the entry/exit zone was opened and closed. However, if you are just testing the system or trying out the different system features, you may arm to stay mode and not leave the house. In this case, because the L5100 does not receive an open/close from a door programmed as entry/exit, at the end of the exit delay it will automatically set itself to Stay Mode instead of Away Mode. To avoid false alarms, the LYNX Touch doesn't want to arm to the away mode if you are inside the house.

If you really have a reason to arm to away mode when you won't really be leaving the house, you can simply open and close one of your delayed zones to simulate leaving. The system will see the fault and restoral of the delay zone and it won't switch back to stay mode.

If you frequently want to arm to away mode without having to open and close a delay door, you can also turn off the Auto Stay Arming feature. To do so, enter panel programming by pressing More in the bottom right corner, then Tools. Enter your installer code and press the Program option. Hit the down arrow, and press System Settings. Press on the Auto Stay Arming box and it will change from Yes to No. Finally, save the change and back out of programming mode. Your L5100 will now arm to whichever arming mode you choose, no matter what.

Please note that if you have a monitoring plan that includes Total Connect service, you don't have to worry about your L5100 panel switching to stay mode every time you remotely arm the system to away mode. Total Connect 2.0 and the LYNX Touch were designed to ignore the Auto Stay Arming feature when the Arm Away command originates from Total Connect.

Also, if you want to know what Arm Away and Arm Stay arming modes do without worrying about Auto Stay Arming, check out our FAQ on the difference between Arm Away and Arm Stay.